Demon Days
by lnnocence
Summary: AU. Link is tasked to protect the world from the forces of the demon and vampire armies led by the vampire queen, Peach, and Ganondorf, the Demon King. Link sets out to recruit special forces to help him alongside his journey. He'll need all the help he could get to ever stand a chance against their foes. Please R
1. Kokiri Forest

Author's Note:

The Link in this story is a mix between the TP Link and OoT Link just to clear things up

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The Kokiri forest- a wondrous forest that houses protection for its inhabitants. Dangerous creatures such as demons and vampires threaten to ravage the outside world. The citizens of the forest are under protection of a guardian, the Great Deku Tree. Guardians use their power to ward off these creatures of evil.

This tale begins with a young goat rancher, Link. Link is seventeen years old with blonde hair and wears a white shirt with a red print. Link was rather unusual because he lacked a guardian fairy. Link was having a rather nasty dream.

In this dream, a fire was burning the woods and a dark shadow began making its way towards the village. The sounds of screaming filled the air. People moved passed Link like apparitions. Shadows became moving closer towards the village, they appear black and smoky with blood-red eyes. They came closer until Link suddenly jerked his head up and woke up with sweat on his face.

Link looked around his house and saw that it was mid-morning outside. "Great, I'm late for work." Link said to himself.

Walking around town, Link was popular with the kids of Kokiri.

"Hey Link, you're late for work arentcha?" one of the kids asked.

"Yep, I better get there fast." Link replied.

He went to the spring to retrieve his horse for his job. Link went to the ranch and got interrogated by the owner.

"So Link, how come you were late today? You are not normally this late at all. Even when you started working here."

"I'm sorry, I didn't sleep well." Link replied.

"It's alright Link. You help out so much around the ranch. I'm just concerned for you. Anyways, I got the goats fed and grazing here, why don't you just take the rest of the day off."

"Alright, thanks."

Link decided to head back to his place, but a young girl wearing a cloak passed by him. She studied his eyes closely as he was heading back. The girl reached out to Link's shoulder and said, "Excuse me?"

Link turned around.

"Hi, do you know where the Great Deku Tree is?" she asked.

Link decided to ask where this mysterious girl came from. Outsiders were never seen inside Link's village. It was as though the forest had a barrier.

"Hey, how did you manage to find this village?" Link asked her.

"Oh, um…" she stuttered.

This girl is stuttering is there something that she's hiding?

"Well… I sorta got directions from somebody." She answered.

"Directions? That sounds kind of fishy." Link thought.

"I don't know if I can trust you to see the guardian. You're an outsider." Link stops.

"Please! Your village could be in danger!" she pleads.

"Prove it. Who are you and what are you doing in Kokiri?" Link demands.

The girl lifts her hood and she is revealed to be a beautiful maiden with long golden hair.

"My name is Zelda. I'm an enchantress." She reveals.

"Enchantress? Do you mean a witch?" Link puts up his sword to her.

"Witch has such a bad connotation. Yes, I am capable of casting spells that are out of reach for humans, but my power is not associated with dark magic!" She shakes her head.

"Alright." Link sheathes his sword. "I'll take you to the Tree. I'm going to grab my sword just in case we run into something. The forest can be dangerous. Oh, my name's Link by the way."

"Great! Thank you Link!" she replied happily.

And so the two arrive at the Great Deku Tree. The Tree was old and looking like he was going to wither any day now.

The Tree began speaking, "Ahhh, Zelda. Thou hast come to see me. And Link escorted thee! Link… Welcome. Listen to what I have to tell thee. I can read your expression that thou hast endured sleepless nights in the past few days."

"You know about my dream?" Link looked at the tree inquisitively.

"That I have. Zelda, what news thou has come to deliver?" The Tree asked.

"Yes, I am here to bear news that the demons are closing in on the forest!" She replied.

"Demons have tried and tried to puncture the forest, but thy failed against me."

"Are you certain?"

In a quick flash, Zelda ran to the tree and put her poisoned it. Her face changed to that of a creature with pale-white skin, blood red-eyes, and she took off her cloak to reveal that she was wearing a purple and black dress.

The tree was feeling the effects from the poison and muttered, "Vampire Queen Peach, thou hast allied thyself with the demons?"

Queen Peach replies, "Only to take over the land of Nodentni. Nobody can stop us. Your barrier only stops demons, but not vampires of a higher class."

And with that the Tree shriveled up and a blue liquid seeped from it. Link was putting up a guard position and yelled, "I should have never trusted you!"

"But, Linky, this wasn't possible without _your help._ I could have gotten stuck in the forest for all I know!" She laughed.

Link decided to strike at her. The Vampire Queen moved too fast to get hit by Link's attacks. She then disappeared and reappeared on a tree far from Link's reach.

"I would normally kill you, but I have a better plan in mind and decided to spare your life! I am such a wonderful person, you can thank me later!" The Queen taunted.

The trees were rustling and a large shadow appeared above Link. The demons were closing in on the village. Link was going to run to the village, but then he was held by two vampires. The Queen appeared in front of Link.

"Take this one to the Deep Darkness. He is the lucky one who gets spared today." The Queen requested her underlings.

The Deep Darkness is a swamp that is within the Kokiri forest. It draws its name from the plethora of trees that block the sun and it got worse as you would get closer to the heart of the swamp.

"Wow, your highness, you barely leave your captors alive." One of the vampires commented.

"Well, I felt gracious today. He is responsible for making this coup work out nicely." The Queen responded.

"I like the plan your highness."

Link was struggling to get out of the vampires' grasp. The vampires were apparating towards the swamp. The force of using apparation felt as though gravity was pulling you toward the ground while you were flying in a super-fast speed. Link knocked the vampires away from him while in apparating and they both flew in different angles as Link came crashing toward the ground. Link ended up in the swamp, but he saw that the village was on fire as the smoke indicates. Not wasting anytime, Link tried to run as fast as he could to the fire, but the swamp kept getting darker. Link decided to push on, unafraid of death.

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I hoped people liked it. Please R+R and feel free to give me ideas. This story is going to be focused on Link mainly if you are wondering.


	2. The Swamp

After walking for almost two and a half hours, Link was lost inside the Deep Darkness. The swamp was murky and cold. Link was trudging towards the fire, but he could not see the smoke anymore as the area got darker and darker. This was getting worse as dusk was approaching, Link was worried for his life whether he can make it out alive in the swamp for a day. Dangerous creatures such as snakes, large spiders, and insects that carry deadly diseases were often active at night.

Link was pacing at a faster rate now. Dusk has arrived and visibility is declining fast. Since the vampires took Link's sword, he decided to make himself a makeshift spear out of a long tree branch and sharpened a rock that he found from the swamp's water. Not as good as a sword, but still a form of self-protection.

Night fell. Link was still deep inside the swamp. He couldn't tell whether he was going in the right direction or not. But then, he saw something. He saw Bulbins. These Bulbins were strange looking, instead of green skin their hides were shadowish. It was most likely from the demons' magic.

"They must have their leader nearby." Link thought.

Unfortunately, one of the shadow bulbins spotted him from the trees. The bulbin blew a horn and many shadow bulbins surrounded Link.

Link brought out his spear to defend himself. The shadow bulbins were using their clubs to batter Link. Link started to swing his spear and it scratched some of them. More shadow bulbins came and they clubbed Link until he fell unconscious. They dragged Link towards their campsite and threw him into a cell. The cell was just a hut with iron gates on it.

Even though Link was unconscious, he was dreaming.

He felt the presence of a few individuals around him. A youthful voice began speaking to him, "Link, the old tree may be dead. But there still is hope!"

Another voice perked up, "Yeah! We all may be inexperienced but there is strength in numbers. You need to recruit as many people to fight against the demons!"

Link spoke back, "But how can I do that? I can't even fend for myself!"

A womanly voice replied, "Link, you are the hero chosen by the goddesses. It is simply your destiny."

"What destiny?" Link questioned.

"You and many diverse individuals will save the lands of Nodentni from evil." The woman replied.

"Where do I find these individuals?" Link questioned.

"Why some of us are chosen to go with you! But we are only in your dreams right now." One of the younger voices said.

"I'm the closest near you, Link. I'm at the heart of Deep Darkness. To find me, go see King DK. I have entrusted him with a stone that will locate me. He lives in the Jungle Japes, it's not far from here."

"Why can't you meet me and bust me out of the bulbin's lair?" Link argued.

"I don't want to end up like the Deku Tree. It's too dangerous if I go alone."

The woman started to talk, "Also, Link. With the tree gone, your _other self_ will awaken forcibly this night."

"Other self?" Link puzzled.

The young, peppy voice chirped, "Oh you mean he's a-"

Link woke up in a jail cell. The bulbins noticed him stirring and opened the cell to make him face their king. They grabbed his arms and forced him outside. Link felt very strange. Somehow, he couldn't resist looking at the moon. He started to get sweaty, and he felt his bones shift. Link was in agonizing pain. He was growing dark hair around his body. His legs shifted and his jawline started to push out and form a muzzle. His eyes then started to have a strange glow to them. It became clear that Link is a werewolf.

The bulbins started to try to put the wolf down by clubbing it. Link didn't know how to fight well enough, but he had superior agility and outran the bulbins.

Link felt strange trying to get used to this new form. He was a black and white wolf with glowing blue eyes. He had a much easier time seeing due to his heightened senses.

Link heard a noise not too far. It sounded like a monkey screeching. Link made his way quietly only to find reptilian monsters had captured a monkey wearing a red shirt and hat. Link heard voices coming from them.

"I won't tell you where my uncle is, you ugly kremlings!" the monkey screeched.

"Fine, we'll force it out of you!" the kremling sneered.

Link decided to save the monkey. He used a surprise attack and pounced one of the kremlings. His fangs worked hard to try to pierce flesh. As Link defeated the kremling, the other was putting on a battle face and was going to try to pummel Link. Link evaded the attack with ease and made work of the other kremling.

Link walked up to the monkey's cage and saw that it was a steel cage.

Link asked, "Is there a key to this cage?"

The monkey asked, "Are you saving me? Or are you going to eat me?"

Link looked at the monkey, "No I'm not gonna eat you. I can't imagine anything eating a monkey."

"Really? Thanks Mr. Wolf!"

"Just call me Link."

"Oh Link then. Well the key is in that kremling's satchel."

Link found the satchel and picked it up with his jaw and tried to open it.

"I'll just open it. Opposable thumbs are awesome!" The monkey suggested.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Link looked down to his paws.

The monkey opened up his cage door.

"Thanks for busting the kremlings, Link. My name is Diddy Kong!" Diddy Kong thanked.

Diddy Kong asked, "Hey Link? Do you think you can come with me to the Jungle Japes? I don't want to get captured by kremlings again along the way."

"Jungle Japes? Yes, that's where I need to go!" Link thought.

Link nodded in response.

Diddy Kong began climbing up a tree and swinging from branches. Link ran along with Diddy Kong.

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AN: Bulbins are those green troll looking enemies from Zelda: Twilight Princess

Kremlings are alligator enemies from DK: Country

Hoped everyone liked this chap. I'm getting all sorts of ideas for it and yes, it does have a definitive end.

Review to help keep motivating me to write, it makes me glad that people would give a crap about my stories.


	3. King of the Jungle

Diddy Kong guided Link towards the Jungle Japes. It was a nice change of scenery compared to the swamp. The trees are a nice bright green color and the night sky is brimming with stars.

Diddy Kong noticed more kremlings up ahead. He whispered to Link, "Think we can take them?"

"You know it!" Link replied.

Diddy Kong jumped on one of the kremlings and latched on his face. He smacked the kremling in the head while Link jumped on the kremling's back. This made the kremling unconscious.

"We make an awesome team, Link!" Diddy clapped his hands in victory.

"No kidding, you got creative with it." Link said.

Not too far ahead, Diddy spotted a rhino and got excited.

"Hey Link! There's Rambi the Rhino! He has a lot of strength to maul the kremlings so we can get to my uncle's place in no time!"

Link looked shocked, "We are riding a rhino?"

"Yeah! It's loads of fun!" Diddy grabbed Link by the neck and scooped him on the rhino.

Diddy woke up the rhino and smacked it. The rhino wasted no time and charged through the jungle. In no time, the rhino made it towards a village of tree houses.

"We're gonna crash Link, jump off of Rambi!" Diddy screeched as he jumped off.

Link jumped off just in time. He was looking at the village and it seemed to be sort of primitive compared to his own village, but it was a civilization nonetheless.

"Link, I bet my uncle will let you stay here for the night for rescuing me!" Diddy offered.

"You keep talking about your uncle." Link replied.

"He's so cool! He's my idol." Diddy said happily.

Diddy guided Link towards a tree house. A large gorilla was sleeping inside.

"Hi uncle DK!" Diddy greeted.

Diddy's uncle woke up startled and noticed that Diddy brought a strange wolf with him.

"Diddy, I've been looking everywhere for you all afternoon! I was worried that you were caught!" Diddy's uncle cried as he embraced his nephew.

"Don't cry uncle! I was saved by Link the wolf here!"

Link nodded in recognition.

"Link, thank you for rescuing my nephew. My name is Donkey Kong, I am the King of the Jungle… Japes."

Link bowed to King DK and said, "I am humbled to be in your presence, King."

Link remembered his dream and added, "Also, I would like to ask… if by chance… do you have a stone that can guide me to the heart of the Deep Darkness?"

DK looked at Link sternly.

"You want to go to the Heart of Darkness? That place is strictly off limits as long as I am King."

Out of the unexpected, DK threw a punch at Link. This sent Link flying to a wall.

"Uggggh, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Link growled.

"To test if you weren't a demon, my fully charged punch is known to knock some dark magic out of demons! I can't trust you completely after you said that you wanted the stone." DK reasoned.

Link thought, "This guy definitely deserves his title of King."

Link felt a wave of dejá vu hit him and thought he should prove himself to the King.

"King Donkey Kong, I am willing to do any quest that you request me to be entrusted with the stone."

"Any request?" the King asked rhetorically.

"Yes, I am trying to locate those who will help me on my quest to vanquish the demons. The one I am trying to locate is within the inner sanctum of the swamp." Link explained.

DK spoke up, "Maybe, I'll give you a chance. My village was robbed when I was out looking for my nephew. I suspect my arch-nemesis King K. Rool has stolen the reserves of bananas. If you can recover our food supply, I will consider giving the stone to you."

"I'll do it your majesty, but maybe tomorrow morning. It's been a long day."

"Indeed it has, go recover at the hot springs nearby." DK suggested.

Link and Diddy left DK's house.

"You're going to love the hotspring, Link! Sometimes, the fairies gather around the spring, but it doesn't happen all that often. The spring is just past the house with the orange roof and down the dirt path. I'm gonna go to sleep! I'm so tired."

Diddy went to his house while Link found a hot spring. Link didn't see anything interesting at the hot spring at first but something urged him to use his senses. Link looked around using his heightened senses and saw a large amount of small fairies dancing around the springs. He noticed a girl with bright cyan hair that covered her chest was looking at him. This mysterious girl came towards Link.

"I am the Great Fairy. I can sense that you have had endured a number of ordeals on this day." The fairy kneeled down to Link's level.

"As the sun rises, you will return to your natural form. The fairies have created a set of clothes befitting for a hero. They will disappear as you transfer into a beast and reappear as you revert. Link, if you ever need assistance, visit any spring." The great fairy disappeared.

Link felt exhausted as he started to curl up and sleep near the spring.

The next morning Link found himself reverted back to human. He was wearing the clothes the fairies gave him. It was a green tunic with a strange looking hat.

The next thing Link was concerned about was how he would equip himself. Luckily, there was a small kingdom not too far from the Jungle Japes.

Link walked to the kingdom. It was overflowing with merchants and farmers trading for goods. The kingdom was known as Altea and it was ruled by Prince Marth.

Link found a blacksmith shop and saw a collection of swords. Link saw one that caught his eye. It was a longsword with a gray hilt encased in a brown scabbard. Link picked it up and examined it.

Link spots the blacksmith looking at him. The blacksmith was wearing some strange armor. It was orange and red in color and it glowed.

The blacksmith begins talking to Link, "You look like you are not from these parts."

"Truth to be told is that you're right." Link replied.

"I'm not known for my swords, but I am revered in creating armor." The armor clad figure said.

"I can tell. I've never seen armor like that." Link replied.

"Well, how do you think you can pay for that sword?" The blacksmith asked.

Link searched his pockets and to his surprise, there were some gold pieces in his pockets.

Link smiled. The fairies must have given him some gold pieces as if they knew he needed supplies.

Link showed his gold pieces to the blacksmith and smiled, "I'm sure that gold is the universal currency, right?"

"Indeed it is." The blacksmith replied.

Link gave the blacksmith two pieces of gold in exchange for the sword.

"It was real interesting meeting you. What's your name?" the blacksmith asked.

"My name is Link."

The blacksmith took off his helmet to reveal that he is really a _she_.

"Nice to meet you Link, my name is Samus. I am a bounty hunter and I work as a blacksmith as a side job." Samus introduced.

Link gawked that this blacksmith in this high tech armor turned out to be a woman. And not just any woman- an attractive one at that!

"So you hunt criminals?" Link asked.

"Yes, I plan to kill Queen Peach." Samus stated.

Link stopped her, "Samus, don't head first when dealing with her. She has two armies backing her up!"

"Well, what I am supposed to do about it! I can't just let her destroy towns and have myself sit and do nothing!" Samus argued.

Link offered, "Samus, I'm gathering up an army. This army will defeat the demons and vampires."

"And exactly how many people are in this 'army'?" Samus air quoted army.

Link thought to himself and replied, "Well, I have someone who is waiting for me at the heart of Deep Darkness. And I'm pretty sure that another wanted to join."

"So you haven't exactly met them?" Samus asked.

"No, but they claim to be in!" Link defended.

"Tell you what Link, I'll consider joining your army if I see at least a soul with you next time we meet." Samus stated.

"Great! You look like you can really help our team!" Link complimented.

Samus thought, "I'm probably the most capable anyways."

"Anyways, speaking of bounties, I guess I am a bounty hunter too." Link said.

"No kidding?" Samus questioned.

"I have been tasked to defeat King K. Rool by King DK. So I better make my way." Link said.

"Hey Link, I am interested into going with you." Samus offered.

"Really? Um, sure. That's great!" Link replied.

And so the two left the blacksmith shop after Samus closed it. Link was walking towards the Jungle Japes.

Samus broke the silence after walking for about and hour, "Do you know where you are going?"

"I think so. I'm looking for kremlings. If we find some, we can track where they are coming from, and find their king."

Link and Samus went deeper into the jungle. They spotted some kremlings.

"Those alligator things are kremlings." Link whispered to Samus.

Samus wasted no time and blasted some missiles at the kremlings with her arm cannon. The two ran through the jungle and slashed/ blasted the kremlings in their way. They stopped at a river.

"This river must be a channel for the kremlings to cross." Samus stated.

Samus found a large tree and knocked it over the river.

Link asked, "Was that to stop the kremlings from getting further in?"

"Yep." Samus confirmed.

The two followed the river to find where the kremlings are. They saw some kremlings on boats, so the two hid underneath the brush of the jungle.

They saw a large ship that housed a huge mound of bananas. There was a larger kremling sitting on the mound and he wore a crown.

"That must be King K. Rool." Link pointed out.

Samus was about to shoot the ship, but Link put his hands on her arms and quietly yelled, "Samus, I need the bananas on the ship to be safe!" Samus disarmed her cannon.

"Then what do we do?" Samus asked.

Link spotted some barrels nearby. He proposed, "We sneak onto the cargo hold. We'll both get inside those barrels over there."

"Sounds like a plan."

Link got into a smaller barrel, whereas Samus had to get inside a larger crate due to the weight of her suit.

Link felt himself being rolled into the cargo hold. Link was feeling a bit noxious about it. Samus's crate was lifted by four kremlings into the hold.

Link and Samus waited for about a couple hours for the cargo to be fully loaded and that there would be no kremlings nearby.

They both broke out of there crates and stormed up the ship. It was clear that Samus was not used to stealth. She was just blowing everything in her way. Link trudged behind her.

They both got on the top of the ship. King K. Rool spotted them and issued all the kremlings to attack them. Link slashed them and Samus was blasting them, but more kept coming. Samus noticed that her suit was losing power too quickly.

Samus urged, "Link go after the King! I'll take these guys by myself!"

Link nodded.

Link made his way up towards the mounds of bananas. The king jumped up on the mast of the ship. Link kinda wished he had his wolf agility right about now.

Linked yelled, "Samus blast the mast off!"

Samus used the last of her suit's power and it created a huge laser that destroyed the mast and a lot of the kremlings. King K. Rool fell off the mast and landed on his stomach from the explosion. He got right back up and Link looked him right in the eyes.

King K. Rool was charging at him. Link moved to the side. Then the king tried attacking Link with his crown. Link tried slashing at his stomach but it didn't even faze him.

Link noticed that the crown the king was wearing could be protecting potential weak spot. When the king tried attacking Link with his crown again, Link striked the alligator's head with his sword multiple times. The attack seemed to work; K. Rool was looking rather messed up after dealing damage to his head.

It didn't take long for K. Rool to go down. When the remaining kremlings found their king was KO'd, they ran away.

Link looked at Samus. Her armor was completely destroyed.

Link asked, "Why don't you just take the suit off?"

Samus did just that. Link was staring at her appearance.

She wore an extremely fitting blue catsuit and her hair was long and in a ponytail. Her busts were definitely the most noticeable thing about her.

Samus noticed Link staring and said, "You can stop looking y'know."

Link turned away.

Samus adds, "I'm glad that we were able to defeat King K. Rool. I haven't had anything this interesting happen in a long, long time. I'm interested in working with you again sometimes."

"Yeah, it felt good working with you Samus." Link blushed.

"I'm going to call ADAM and have him get King K. Rool locked up." Samus offers.

"Alright, I got some monkey business to attend." Link laughed.

* * *

Glad I finished this chapter. It was pretty long for me considering my chaps are usually 1K, but I felt that this was appropriate.

Please review! Constructive Criticism is appreciated too.

I'm going to Edit some past chapters, also. They are kinda worded weird.


	4. Heart of Darkness

So, Samus left the Jungle Japes using her airship.

Nightfall was arriving in about three hours. Link decided to kill time by going back to Altea and prepping himself for the long journey ahead of him. Link bought some empty bottles to carry potions in and some antidote in case something poisoned or paralyzed him.

Link went back to the jungle to hide the fact that he was a werewolf to any passerby. Night came and Link transformed. The transformation wasn't as painful as the first night to Link's relief.

Link was running the jungle. It felt nice not having to deal with any kremlings since their king was captured now. Link had now arrived at King DK's tree house village.

Diddy Kong noticed Link, "Hey Link! Good to see you again! I tried looking everywhere for you today! Where were you?"

Link smiled, "Taking care of King K. Rool. I made a friend and she got him sent to an official jail."

Diddy jumped happily, "You did? That's awesome! Wait till my uncle hears about this!"

Diddy and Link made their way towards Donkey Kong's tree house.

Diddy opened the door, "Uncle DK! Link's here and he defeated King K. Rool!"

"And the bananas?" King DK asks.

"Safe and sound. The kremlings stole way too many and I couldn't carry that huge mound all by myself." Link replied.

Donkey Kong looked happy, "Then we shall go retrieve them!"

Donkey Kong walked out of his tree house and went towards the middle of the village and blew a giant horn to signal the other Kongs.

"Kongs, our food supply has been saved!" Donkey Kong announces.

The other kongs were jumping with joy at the news.

"Now follow Link to reclaim our food supply!" Donkey Kong said.

Link nodded and ran towards the kremlings' ship. There they saw all the stolen bananas were a huge mound. All the Kongs brought barrels and crates to reclaim their stolen food. It didn't take long for all the food to be put in barrels. Donkey Kong was lifting about five barrels at a time when taking them back up to the village. After a couple hours of heavy lifting, Link confronts Donkey Kong about the stone.

"King DK, now that I have completed your request, may I go into the heart of darkness?" Link pleads.

Donkey Kong studied him again, "Link, you are a brave wolf who is sincere as well. I have hid the stone in a cavern behind a waterfall. To activate the entrance, you must show it the golden banana!"

"Golden banana?" Link questioned.

"As King, I always have one ready." Donkey Kong stated.

Looking at Link's face, Donkey Kong realized that he said something off, "Uh, the banana is in this chest here." Donkey Kong opened the chest and revealed a banana that seemed to glimmer.

"Thanks, King DK." Link thanked.

"I trust that you are the 'chosen one' Link… Now go and retrieve the stone. Just get to the heart of darkness before the sun goes up! The spirit gate is only open on nights. If we waste any time, the demons will take advantage of this." Donkey Kong said as he gave Link the banana.

Link, with the banana in his jaw, ran towards the river and followed it upstream, he then spotted a waterfall.

"This looks like it." Link thought.

Link spotted a small opening through the waterfall. He tried scaling the mountain, but to no use. Link had to learn how to use his wolf agility to get up there.

Link practiced jumping far distances, and got better at it. He gave scaling the mountain another shot.

Link looked for any rocks he could jump on and memorized which ones to step on. Link made it up the cavern and saw a picture with the initials DK on it. Link showed the banana to the picture and it seemed to react. The wall opened up, revealing a large cavern.

The cavern held many areas, but one stuck out to Link. There was a door with a sign that a picture of a circle with both a horizontal and vertical line. (The smash symbol)

Link had to figure how to get there. He saw a small opening through the top of one room. That had to lead to another right? Link made his way to the opening and crawled towards the next room. It was small, but there was a small chest in it. Link opened the chest and it revealed a small key.

Link figured this key was for the door to the next room. The next room had a couple of pillars in it.

Wasting no time, Link jumped to the next room. He navigated the cavern to find a room that looked suspicious.

Link entered the darkly lit room and it contained a coffin. A figure stepped out of the coffin. It was a being known as the Shattered Man. It is best described as a sort of mummy.

The shattered man was slow, but strong. Link tried to bite it, but to no avail. The shattered man grabbed Link with its icy hand. Link shivered and was unable to move. Link tried to look at his surroundings if he can use something that could give him an edge. Link some saw barrels and cracked them open. In one was a camera.

"A camera?" Link thought.

The shattered man leapt forward and grabbed Link and tried to put him in a suffocating hold.

Link accidently flashed the camera. It seemed to work on the shattered man; it was getting dizzy from light exposure.

"Light exposure! Of course!" Link said as he realized the Shattered Man's weakness.

Link kept taking pictures using the camera and all the light exposure caused the shattered man to turn to dust from all that exposure.

Link saw an object bulge from the dust. It looked solid. Link used his paws to find out what it was. It was a rather large key.

"Most likely the key to open the large chamber." Link thought.

Link used his jaw to hold the key and made his way to the large chamber. Link opened the chamber and behind it was a hall.

At the end of the hall, a small box was placed in the middle. No stand, no nothing. Just a tiny box.

Link opened the box and it played a soothing melody. Link saw a small, blue stone inside the box.

"This looks like the stone." Link thought.

Link thought he could track down the person he needed to find by seeing if a scent was on the stone. Link smelled a distinct scent.

Link ran to the swamp as fast as he could with the stone and made sure to avoid detection from the demons. The scent leads him towards the darkest part of the swamp. The stone glowed so brightly that it could be seen from outside of the box.

Link saw a gate. "This has to be the spirit gate!" Link thought.

While moving through the gate, everything started to look distorted to Link. His vision was blurring up. Link closed his eyes and opened them.

Link opened his eyes to find himself back to human. Something seemed off though, his body was semi-transparent and everything around him lit up. The area was brighter and all white. Link didn't know where to go. The gate forced him back to his human form, so he couldn't track this person down by scent.

But, something about the stone seemed off. Link decided to actually open the box and examine the stone.

The stone was small, circular and blue. Upon the feeling of his hands, Link felt something. It was like the stone had a pulse to it. Link put it up to his forehead and could feel a faint beat coming from it. Link walked toward a cave that was in clear view. Link entered the cave and saw that there were five different paths to take. In the middle of the fork of the roads, contain a pedestal with an inscription on it.

It read, "Only one path lead somewhere. The other paths will leave any outsider to be trapped within the labyrinth forever."

Link thought, "So I only get one shot at this?"

Link looked at all the paths. It was hard for him to decide since they all look like they lead on forever. Link took a random guess at the second entrance to the right. When Link was almost going to go with it, Link felt that the stone was giving off a colder feeling.

Link knew that this stone had some connection with its owner. Cold probably meant that this pathway wasn't the right one.

In fact, the stone did not react to any of the pathways. Link felt the stone get warmer near the base of the pedestal. Link checked the base of the pedestal for any clues. He felt some kind of switch on the side of the pedestal and clicked it. A hatch opened below and Link assumed this was the right path. The stone glowed brighter to confirm his assumption to be true.

Link traveled down the pathway and arrived at the end. There was a glowing spire at the end. Link touched the spire and it felt a light grew harsher on him.

He found himself not in the whitish area he was in previously, but on a strange landscape with huge crops and the pathway he was on was surrounded by a sea that was purple colored.

Link looked at himself to find that he was still translucent. It meant that he was still inside the spirit realm.

Link walked around this strange place and saw a young kid nearby.

"Good to see that you have finally arrived, Link." The kid greeted.

Link demanded, "Who exactly are you?"

"The one who contacted you to come here through a dream. Both I and a couple friends of mine are capable of communicating to others through dreams. Your call for help was so bright; I couldn't help but try to talk to you." The kid explained.

"Great, I go through all that trouble to find a kid who claims to help me." Link thought.

"Hey! I heard that! I may not be a fully realized guardian, but I'm trying ok?" the kid yelled at me.

"But I didn't even say anything." Link defended.

"You said it with your mind."

"What the? You have telepathy or something? That's a real invasion of privacy!" Link argued.

"Couldn't help myself. I wanted to know what your thought patterns were. I thought it would help in the future. Look, if you want to find someone else-" The kid got cut off as Link interrupted, "Kid or should I say guardian. I need help. In fact, as much help as I can get to defeat the demon army. The guardian of my village was killed right before my very eyes. Are you sure you will be safe by coming with me?" Link questioned.

"Probably not. But, it never hurts to go down without trying. Even if I stay here, the demons will find me and destroy me along with the world." The kid answered.

It was clear to Link that no amount of lecturing could change the guardian's mind.

"Alright, so… uhhh… got any plans to destroy the demon army?" Link asked.

"Well, I do have a few friends we can meet up with. Also, we can recruit others along the way." The guardian suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. Say, I never got your name." Link commented.

"Oh yeah, sorry for not introducing myself earlier. My name's Ness."

* * *

Another chap done! It seriously helps that I made I made an outline for this story :D

Edited Rampy to Rambi, thanks ninja moongoose. Just shows how my memory of DKC is a little scratchy.


	5. A Friendly Sparring Match

Fascinated by the colorful scenery in this realm, Link asks, "So, what exactly is this place? It's much different from the spirit realm. The spirit realm is mostly blank, whereas here is very colorful and abstract in a way."

"I created this place. Or simply, this is a land of my subconscious we are in. I didn't directly create it, it just came to be!" explained Ness.

"Alright, so… Ready to head to the outside world?" Link asked.

"Well, I thought we could stay here for the night. It's still dark out and you need some rest!"

Link did feel exhausted from everything he did today. He packed some stuff, defeated King K. Rool with Samus's help and went through a whole cavern to retrieve a stone _all_ just to arrive at this place.

"Yeah, I'll take you up on that offer." Link accepted.

Ness guided Link towards a small building and inside had a bed and a fluffy cushion. Ness offered the bed to Link seeing how much of a rough two days he had endured while he slept on the cushion.

Link wakes up in about seven hours. It was strange to tell what time of day it is in this peculiar realm. Link looks around for his sword, but it wasn't where he left it. Link walked outside to find that Ness was holding it.

"Hey Link, the sooner you eat some breakfast the sooner we can spar!"

"Sparring? How can I spar with a guardian?" Link questioned.

"It's simple, either try hitting me or dodge my attacks. I'll give you your sword back when we start, now go eat something!"

Link decided to explore the area a bit. Link saw many different interesting looking people. There was a black rabbit, some old guy in a robe, and a bunch of children not too far off.

"These must be figments of people that Ness may have come in contact with." Link assumed.

Link saw an older guy come up to him, "Hello sir, I have been entrusted to offer you some food. Master has recommended me to make this for you."

The man led Link to a round table filled with some nostalgic foods: Lon Lon milk with some creamy pumpkin soup.

"Reminds me of being back home…" Link thought.

Link finished his food to spar.

Link asked a question, "Hey Ness, how did you know about-"

"the food? I scanned your mind this morning and found that you were feeling a little homesick."

Link looked at him, "Dude, you have no sense of privacy."

"Can't help it." Ness laughed.

"Alright, I'm ready to spar now. May I have my sword back?" Link asks. Ness handed it back to him.

"So do we start now?" Link asked. Soon as he asked, Ness used a bat to hit Link in the stomach.

"What was that for?" Link spat.

"Rule one of dealing with things like demons, expect a surprise blow attack!" Ness stated.

Link tried going for the offense by slashing at Ness, but the kid kept rolling out of the way to make some distance between them. Link was going to run at him, only to face a colorful stream of lights heading for him. Link ran off to the side to avoid getting hit. This next attack wasn't so as easy to avoid. Ness summoned a blinding light and Link was curious what it did. It had no explicitly damaging effect, but Link's eyes began to swell up with tears.

"What did that light do?" Link cried.

"Oh I used PK Flash. It doesn't cause direct harm, but it gives the opponent a random annoying status effect. Looks like you're experiencing uncontrollable crying."

Link saw that Ness was running towards him to try to hit him with that bat of his, but Link stood his ground. Link used his sword to guard himself and it worked! Link used his superior strength to knock the bat away. Link had his sword near his opponent's chest, but to his dismay, Ness's hands glowed signaling another attack.

"Looks like it's a draw, but I went easy on you. I didn't want to overdo it." Ness boasted.

"Please, I almost had you." Link taunted.

"Well, it looks like somebody doesn't want to be healed after all that."

"You can heal others?" Link questioned.

Ness nodded his head a green aura enveloped around Link. Link's bruise that he had obtained from being injured in the beginning of their match started to fade back into Link's normal skin tone.

"Pretty cool huh?" Ness said proudly.

"Yeah, I've never been healed this way. It's usually through drinking red potion where I get healed instantly like this." Link comments.

"We should get going to the outside world now." Ness suggested.

Link asks, "How are we going to get back to the outside world. There was no spire that leads back to the place I came from."

"Link, grab my hand. The way back is a little rough." Ness advised.

As Link grabbed his hand, Ness started taking off in a sprint to build up speed. The two were running faster and faster. Link had to close his eyes from all the air blowing past him. Link felt the wind stopped and became noxious and vomited from the experience. Link looked around him and saw that he was back in the Jungle Japes now.

"Sorry, teleportation causes motion sickness for first timers."

Link looked around and looked for his friend. He saw him standing about a few meters behind him, but he was all translucent like Link was in the spirit realm.

"Uhhh, I don't know if you know this but you're all glowy right now." Link observed.

"Oh, Link, the stone!" Ness asks.

Link handed him the box with the stone inside it. Ness grabbed the stone and in a flash became solid like Link was.

"There, now I can be seen! The only reason you saw me is that you have the eyes of a werewolf. Other beings are capable of seeing spirits like the demons, but I thought it'd be better to be seen by humans too. Besides, we're on a mission to recruit as many people right?"

"Yeah, of course. There's someone I want to meet up with. Mind if I go to the kingdom of Altea?" Link asks.

"Sure."

The two walked over to Altea and Link stopped by at a blacksmith shop. Link was looking around to see if Samus was working. Ness was amazed by the types of weaponry and armor Samus made and kept fiddling with everything. Link chuckled at this and decided to see if Samus was in the backroom working on something. Link saw Samus welding some parts of her power armor back together.

Link greeted, "Hey Samus, I'm back again."

Samus took off her welding visor and greeted him back, "Good to see you, Link. Did you recruit anyone for this army of yours?"

"Yeah, I met up with someone who could help me. I brought him along with me. He got mesmerized by all your crafts." Link mentions.

"Introduce me; I need to see if he's another warrior like you." Samus said as she was walking towards her display of swords and armory.

"Well, Samus, he's admiring your swords and armory like I was when we first met."

"Yeah? Is it that guy over there?" Samus pointed to a burly man with slicked back blonde hair and scars on his face. He wore lightweight armor only covering his chest and carried a huge sword on his back.

Link was not sure how to break it to her that the kid trying to lift two lances rather unsuccessfully was his partner. Even worse was that Ness spotted Link and walked up to him.

"Hey Link, is this your friend that you wanted to meet up with?" Ness asked about Samus.

"So Link, what business do you have recruiting children? Did no warriors want to join and only this kid wanted to come with you?" Samus said in a rather nasty voice.

Ness got rather upset by Samus's words and yelled, "Hey woman! Link is the most courageous and enduring warrior there is."

"Oh, he idolizes you." Samus said thinking that Link was a bit pathetic to put a child's life in danger.

Link could see that the guardian's eyes looked focused, as if he was trying to scan Samus's mind.

Samus was going back to working on her power armor when she heard Ness say, "How do you think you'll get vengeance on the demon commander Ridley for killing your parents if you work alone?"

"Ridley! How did you know about what he did to me? Very few people know that information about me." Samus commanded.

"Well…" Ness stuttered.

Link cut in and explained, "Supernatural abilities, let's just leave it at that."

"Oh." Samus looked off estranged from this experience.

Samus expected that supernatural beings were much more awe-inspiring and all-powerful in appearance rather than the meek child before her.

"Link, either she wants to come with us or not! We have to use our time wisely, the demons keep advancing." Ness whispered to Link.

Samus makes a decision, "Link, I want to come with you. I need to avenge Ridley, but to do that I need to get stronger."

Link looked at her and nodded in understanding. Samus went to the backroom and converted her power armor into a morph ball for her to bring on their journey.

As Samus finished closing down her shop, the three notice that the Altean soldiers were all mobilized and the civilians are evacuating the kingdom. This meant bad news for the group, without a safe nearby kingdom to stock up on supplies from; their effort would be severely hindered.

Samus led Link and Ness to the roof of her shop to inspect what exactly was invading Altea. Not too far off in the distance, an army of demons, led by Sir Meta Knight, is closing in on the castle.

Samus spoke, "Looks like we have our first kingdom to defend."

* * *

Another section done! I'm on a roll with getting ideas for this story.

_A little rant about reviews:_

As for reviews, I'd appreciate if more people reviewed my story. I see that some people even make q+a fics to bait them, but q+a stories on are really pointless imo. Stories using reader submitted OCs are another way for people to get more feedback from readers, but I really do believe that OC stories generally suck in the smash bros section because you take away the focus what makes Smash Bros so great- popular Nintendo icons all under one game. I don't mind them as much in pokemon, because it's much more fitting.


	6. A Knight to Remember

Samus put on her power suit, Link brandished his sword, and Ness's hands glowed with energy. The three were to partake in their first defense action as a team. The three moved out with Prince Marth's forces to defend the kingdom of Altea.

The demon army is advancing, they consisted of mainly Darknuts, Balrogs, Gargoyles and even Sir Meta Knight's trained warriors. The three moved on to help crush the demon army.

Link was up against two Darknuts. They are a couple feet larger than him and wearing heavy duty armor, but slow in speed. Link kept sidestepping the Darknuts and slashed their armor. Some pieces of armor were falling off. Link had an easy time dodging their attacks, and kept slashing their armor off. After slashing enough armor off, the Darknuts ditched the heavy gear and are using more streamlined swords. The Darknuts kept slashing at Link, Link tried to keep his guard up but was hit by one of the Darknuts. Link got up to try to defeat the Darknuts and ended up defeating both, but at the cost of his side getting hit.

Link kneeled down in pain, but remembered how Ness healed him from their sparring match. Link shouted, "Ness! I need some healing; I got hit by one of the Darknuts!"

Link's body was enveloped by a green aura and his injury was no more.

"Thanks man!" Link acknowledged.

On Samus's part, she was using plasma shots to make eliminate some of the demons. She was like a one woman army out there. Her scatter shots would take out several enemies at once, but at the cost of limited supply of them being depleted.

Ness was casting shields to soften the damage from physical blows from the demon army. He was acting as a premier combat medic to the team. He uses a bat as his main physical weapon, it didn't seem as much compared to Link's sword and Samus's missiles, but it had some sort of magical properties to it. Compared to other bats, this one did not break or show any signs of breaking anytime soon and it was powerful enough to send foes a good several meters backward from colliding with it.

As the three were making work of the demon army, this caught Sir Meta Knight's attention.

Meta Knight was safely aboard his airship, the Halberd. He is using his vessel as a means of transporting the demon army to infiltrate Altea and conquer the land for the demons. He couldn't help but notice three figures that were eliminating his army without much suffering on their part. They clearly stood out from Prince Marth's army seeing that the prince's army was being pushed back, but these three kept the battle going for both sides.

Meta Knight announces on his ship, "We need backup forces on land, focus on the three who stand out from Prince Marth's army."

The meta knights on board obeyed their master's wish to provide backup for the demon army. They jumped off the airship and landed on the ground to face their target foes.

"If they did survive the battle, these three opponents would make worthy challengers" thought Sir Meta Knight.

The three heroes were surrounded. Link was cornered by several Ax Knights, Samus had to deal with both blade knights and sword knights, and Ness faced Trident Knights.

Samus informs, "My suit only has a limited supply of missiles, I'm down on my last ones. Shall we all go out with a bang?"

"You are running out of power too? My mental energy is exhausting itself from using all those spells!" Ness adds.

Link replies, "Let's all save just enough energy to run away in case unleashing our full power wipes us out." The other two nod in understanding.

Link begins by spinning his blade in a vortex, trapping several enemies within reach. Ness created explosive rays of light that blasted anything that would be in its path. Lastly, Samus used her Zero laser, as she calls it, to fry anything in her path. The end result was that the land was ravaged from their combined efforts and as for the demon army… there was only a quarter of what was left before the three showed up.

Seeing at how much these three did, Sir Meta Knight already knew he won this battle. His airship was above the Kingdom of Altea and he released the demons into the kingdom to capture it.

The three heroes saw the ambush and Prince Marth's army getting captured. They feared that they were next.

Samus yells to Link, "Hey Link, we need to get to somewhere safe!" She then waves her hand in a fashion that meant to follow her.

The three heroes ran to take cover in the forest. Samus guided the others to a cavern where they can take cover.

"I'm sorry guys, we failed." Link said.

"Link, we did the best we could. Live today to improve tomorrow right?" Ness cheered.

"Kid's right Link. What use would we be if we got captured by the demons?" Samus agreed.

"Yeah, I guess that means we should focus on learning some new techniques." Link suggested.

After keeping quiet for about ninety minutes, the group begins to discuss their plans to take back the kingdom of Altea.

Samus suggests, "We should go into Altea at night when we can blend in the shadows and assassinate the demon commander when we spot him."

"That's too risky Samus." Ness disagrees.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Samus asks rhetorically.

"Let's just regain our energy for now. We are all physically and mentally exhausted from that battle." Link points out.

The three heroes agree to get a small rest after what they've been through.

Meanwhile, Sir Meta Knight has captured Prince Marth and interrogating him.

"Prince Marth, I must thank you for giving up this castle for my cause." Sir Meta Knight greeted.

"Your army forcibly took it from me!" Marth shouted.

"But, you had resistance, no? Who were those three beings who fought alongside your army?" MK asked.

"Never saw them before in my life." Marth said truthfully.

"Enough talk, you must know, do you not?" MK interrogated.

"I do not." Marth admitted.

"Fine. I will plunge Altea into the Demon Realm." MK forced.

"What? You can plunge this plane into the Demon Realm?" Marth said with a hint of fear.

"Yes. You know what happens to visitors of the demon realm. Any being that was forcibly brought in the demon realm will become a demon himself."

"Anything but that! Please, spare my people." Marth pleads.

"No, your kingdom is the first to be plunged!" Meta Knight walks away and calls his servants to test out the Vile Orb. The Vile Orb was of limited quantity amongst the demons. Its power can distort the earth's power to become as twisted as the demons'. Creating Vile Orbs came at a price for the demons; it required a soul of a powerful demon leader. Meta Knight challenged and slayed the last demon commander known as Galacta Knight. Using his soul, he created this Vile Orb.

Meta Knight forced some robots to break the orb to plunge Altea into the Demon realm. Meta Knight left the kingdom of Altea to avoid the force exerted by the Vile Orb. The force of a Vile Orb cracking was mind-numbing. For the inhabitants of Altea, it was as if their minds were getting crushed.

The effects of the Vile Orb were taking place. The plant life was mutated into these ugly carnivorous plants known as Deku Babas. Even the people who populated the towns were turning into demons. Most of them were either becoming re deads or imps.

Hearing the explosion outside, the three heroes saw a dark bubble encase the kingdom of Altea.

"No, it's not possible." Samus spoke softly.

"What in the world is that?" Link questioned.

"They found a way to submerge this realm with that of the demon's." Ness interjects.


	7. Shadow Dragon

The three heroes were in front of the dark cloud that encased Altea. Samus tried punching the outer wall only to see that her punches failed to break the barrier.

Ness stopped her, "Samus, this barrier cannot be broken by normal human force. I'm pretty sure I can break it for a split second, but once we go in, I can't assure that I can get us out."

"We need to save this kingdom and bring it out to light again. We failed to protect this place from the demon invasion, we can still save it." Link pressed.

"Alright, we'll go in then…. Wait a sec… I don't know if Samus will be safe from the power of the demon realm." Ness told the two.

"What? What'll happen to me if I go in? Wouldn't Link be afflicted too?" Samus asked.

"If you go in, you'll be turned into one of them. I can't risk that happening. As for Link, he possesses a power that protects him from demon magic." Ness states.

"Wait a second, I do?" Link questioned.

Ness whispered to Link, "You other self, did you forget?"

"Ah gotcha. I guess this is where we split up Samus." Link told her.

"I'm gonna look for you when you're done. How will we keep in touch?" Samus asked.

"I'll find you in the next place you're going to, how about that?" Link suggested.

"Alright, I'm going to head toward Mute City now. I'll be off now." Samus shook Link's hand and made her way towards Mute City.

"So how are you going to break the barrier?" Link asked.

"I just want you to focus on the barrier and when you see a rift, jump inside and I'll come in after you." Ness advised.

Ness took a deep breath to concentrate. He brought his hands to his head to focus a spell that creates lightning and used it to strike the barrier. Link saw the attack working, purple colored lightning was striking the barrier and the two opposing forces broke a small hole in the barrier. The hole was not big enough for Link to fit through.

Link shouted, "Ness, use more power! It's working, I see a small hole forming, and it just needs to be wider for me to fit!"

Link saw that Ness was putting more power behind the lightning. The hole was widening for him to get inside.

Link jumped in with Ness after him. Link's vision became blurry and his body starting to transform into his wolf form. The dark power around him could not touch Link in this form, but it did affect Ness. Link looked up to see that his friend was screeching from the demon realm's power. Hot blue-white energy was leaking out of his body and vanished without a trace. Color faded from his body and he turned a ghastly white. His eyes went from a bluish-purple to grey.

Link yelped at the sight. He ran to his friend and nudged him to see if he would respond.

"Sorry Link, I didn't think this place would do _this_ to me. It drained all my guardian powers, but I can still fight on. I mean, it feels weird not hearing your mind right now."

Link felt weirded out that his friend couldn't use his powers to intrude on people's thoughts like he normally does. Seeing that they both didn't turn into demons, made him thankful that the absolute worst didn't happen.

The two began walking towards the castle of Altea. The landscape that was once lush and green was now foggy and purple. Carnivorous plants began to attack the two. Link used his fangs to crush the plants and Ness used his bat to make work of them. As they were making their way towards the castle, huge thorns blocked the entrance to the castle.

Ness was worried and asked, "What do we do? What do we do?"

Link looked around the area to find that there was a waterway that led into the castle's sewer system. Link nudged his friend to get him to see what he spotted.

"Good thinking Link!"

The two crawled through the opening that led to the sewers. The sewers held large demon rats that would attack the two. The rats were annoyingly evasive when it came to fighting against Ness. Ness couldn't hit them with a solid blow since they were too fast. Link came to help his friend by jumping at the rats and destroying them.

"Pesky vermin, they were lucky that I don't have my powers right now." Ness pouted.

The two walked towards the castle when they both spot a manhole above them. Ness climbed up the ladder that lead to it and opened it up just a crack to take a peak. Ness saw a multitude of demons roaming the streets and climbed back down the ladder.

"Nope, we are not going up there. Too risky." Ness told Link. Link agreed and started walking further down the sewers. They finally found a place to go up safely. They were in a deserted alleyway. They saw the castle was about a few hundred meters away. The problem was infiltrating it.

The two saw a cart full of demon supplements that looked like it was to be transported into the castle. The two snuck over to the cart and hid inside. An imp carried the cart with the two heroes hiding inside it and dragged it towards the castle. Link and Ness heard the cart stop and they peaked outside of the cart to find out where they were.

The looked and saw no sight of any demons, so they got out. They were in a dining hall of sorts. They both heard a huge roar that shook the castle.

"That sounded like a giant demon." Ness said.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Link thought.

Link heard a bunch of demons in the room and dragged Ness away from a door he was about to open. Link saw a platform on the top of the dining hall and nudged his friend that the platform was safe to go through. Obviously, Ness cannot jump very high without his powers. Realizing this, Ness finds some rope in the cart and gives it to Link, "Link, jump up there and throw this rope down so I can climb it."

Link took the rope in his mouth and jumped up to the platform and used his jaws to hold one end of the rope and had Ness climb all the way up. The two entered the next room and found they were _right above_ a whole room with demons. They traveled up the steps that lead to the Royal family's quarters. They were met with some stiff opposition. Two gargoyles were guarding the room. Link jumped at them and bit the gargoyles' wings to impair its' flight. Ness took care of the grounded gargoyles by hitting them square in the chest.

When they both finished destroying the gargoyles, they found the source of what was plunging this kingdom into the demon realm. A large dragon brimming with darkness was their target. It had piercing blood red eyes. It was flying above the royal family's tower. The wolf and guardian made their way toward the top of the tower. They had to defeat the dragon to restore the kingdom.

Link faced the dragon and noticed that it would swoop down to try to attack them with its wings. Link took advantage of this and bit its tail. Link knew that dragons couldn't keep their balance in the air if the tail became damaged. The dragon was plummeting towards them in failure of flight, but the battle was far from over.

The dragon breathed fire on the heroes. Ness suffered from a couple burns on him and Link's fur was singed. Ness batted the dragon's ankles. The dragon fell forward on its stomach clearly injured.

Something seemed wrong. The dragon was defeated, but light did not return to the land. Link looked around in fear that he would be stuck here forever. Ness was freaking out too, that is, until he felt something inside the dragon. He heard a faint voice.

"s.. a.. v.. e.. m.. y.. k.. i.. n.. g.. d.. o.. m. the vile…"

"Vile what?" Ness asked.

"V i l e…. O r b. I.. n... s... i.. d.. e… me."

Ness checked the dragon's body for a source of darkness lodged inside. He found the source on the dragon's head.

"Link, I think I know a way to split the orb from the dragon. If I was able to hear the dragon's voice faintly, then I still have a bit of power left after all. I'm going to use the last of my power to split the dragon from the orb. When the orb comes out of him, destroy it quickly!"

The guardian used the last of his power to perform a technique called Brainshock to disrupt the connection between the orb's evil power and the one it possessed. Link saw a bright black orb split from the dragon. Link destroyed it using his fangs. Everything around him started to fade back to normal. The dreary black clouds of the demon realm faded to a beautifully lit night sky. The demons outside were reverting back into humans. The plant life went back to its usual self. Lastly, Link saw that the dragon was no longer a dragon. It faded back into a young man with blue hair.

A maid went up to the Royal family's quarters but found no Prince. She went to the very top to find her Prince, a wolf, and what appears to be a ghost on the roof. Prince Marth awakened and explained to the maid that these two were friends of his. Marth asked the maid to prepare a room for these two. Link wagged his tail to show that he was friendly. Ness's appearance really freaked out the maid. His skin tone was ghastly white and his eyes were a solid black.

The next morning had arrived and Link woke up back in his human form. Link saw that his friend was back to his normal color. The maid from last night dragged some servants into the room claiming the Prince was crazy for making her care for a wolf and a ghost, but the maid was pleasantly surprised that they found a young man and a child resting in the quarters instead.

Another servant came into their room and prepared them some breakfast. The two were given some freshly baked bread and cheese to eat.

The servant informs, "Our Prince would like to see you two. I will guide you to his quarters."

Link and Ness followed the servant towards Prince Marth's room. They opened the door to find the Prince standing in the middle of the room. The Prince was expecting to confront a wolf and a ghost but looking over at their features he realized that these two were the same beings he met from last night. Link's eyes did not change at all when shifting from human to wolf. They were that same blue color.

The Prince starts the conversation, "Greetings, I suspect that you two are the ones that saved my kingdom from imprisonment of the demon realm?"

"Yes, your highness." Link acknowledges.

"Well, it looks like we were saved by a werewolf and a ghost-" "Guardian actually." Ness interrupts Prince Marth.

"Guardian. Sorry, about that. I just want you to know that I am forever indebted to you two for saving my kingdom. I would like to know how we can help."

Link thinks for a moment and responds, "Well, both of us are creating an army to fight the demons. We need as much help as we could get."

"Sorry, I don't think I can go with you guys since I have a kingdom to maintain. However, I do know of a good mercenary who may be interested to join your ranks. His name is Ike, leader of the Greil Mercenaries. He is skilled with fighting demons. Tell him that I sent you. Currently, he is in the land of Crimea. It's across the sea, but I suggest that you stop by the coast to see Yoshi's Island along the way." Prince Marth advised.

"Thanks, Prince Marth. We'll take your advice and go to Yoshi's Island now." Link agreed.

"Alright, be wary of the long road that is ahead of you. I wish that you two are safe on your way." Marth closed.

Link and Ness walked away from the kingdom of Altea towards the coast.

"So, we'll find this Ike guy and stop demons along the way?" Ness asked.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan." Link followed.

* * *

Hoped everyone like these last two chapters. The story is moving along nicely, looks like I'll finish before Christmas hopefully :D

The next chapter will introduce more characters. Most notably Yoshi (duh...) and maybe even a certain pair of plumbers.


	8. Mario the Vampire Slayer

Link and Ness made it towards the coast to aboard a ship that would cross to Yoshi's Island. The ship hosted some weird looking creatures on board. These "creatures" were known as Toadstools or Toads for short.

One of the Toads came up to the heroes. "Hey, what brings you to Yoshi's Island?"

Link answered, "Oh, we just wanted to stop by. We were recommended to visit it because the Prince of Altea suggested it."

"Oh, just wanted to know! We only have a few humans who live here." The toad replied.

"Those toads have really obnoxious sounding voices." Link thought.

"Tell me about it." Ness agreed. Link playfully knocked his shoulder for getting his thoughts intruded again.

Link smiled that his friend was back to his old self.

The ship was approaching Yoshi's Island. It was a lush, tropical island with a small little kingdom in the far distance. The ship docked on a port.

Link and Ness headed out on the island. These friendly dinosaurs came up to the group and looked like they wanted to play.

Link backed away from them thinking they were dangerous.

"Link, these animals call themselves Yoshis. They are actually kind of nice." Ness informs Link.

"Oh, they're friendly?" Link questioned. A green Yoshi kept coming at Link. The Yoshi looked fond of Link's clothes as they were green like himself.

"We friendly beings!" the Yoshi spoke.

Both Link and Ness were startled that the Yoshi could speak!

"Yoshi want to know young man's name! And where you from." Yoshi asked.

"My name is Link. I am from the Kokiri Forest."

"Link! Yoshi think that is funny name! Yoshi want Link to ride on Yoshi's back!" Yoshi offered.

Link looked at Ness and he simply said to go for it. Link sat down on the green Yoshi's back and Yoshi sprinted off.

Yoshi asked Link, "Where does Yoshi want to take Link to?"

"I was thinking you can show me where I can find a village of humans located on the island." Link asked.

"Yoshi know place!"

Link saw a red blur and it revealed to be his friend on a red Yoshi.

"Hey Link, do you know where to go?" Ness asked.

"Yoshi here is taking me to a village with humans. It sounds interesting, maybe we can recruit more people to help us!" Link replies.

The Yoshis guided the two into a small town. It had small homes, but they were considered modern in style. They only really saw Toads around, so they decide to hit up a bar since it is a common hangout to find humans in there too.

Link and Ness both entered the bar, but an employee went up and asked, "Excuse me, this bar is for people sixteen and over." The worker was glaring at Ness to leave. "Fine, I'll go! I'm not interested in buying your poisonous drinks anyway." Ness waited outside.

Link walked around the bar and saw a human. He was a man who looked ten years older than him. He wore a red shirt, blue overalls, and had a mustache. One of the toads asked the guy, "So Mario, how's your Vampire hunting business going?"

"Vampire hunting?" Link thought. Link was interested in who this guy is.

"I don't know if I'm enough to take care of them. The Mario bros. hunters are only just two members. Me n' my brother, Luigi. I worry every time we go hunting if one of us gets turned into a Vamp. If only I could hunt vampires as well as Simon Belmont..."

Link sounded interested into what this guy can bring into their team. He seemed to be a well-known vampire hunter by the way the toads gathered around him. Link decided to talk to Mario when he was alone.

After a half hour, Link saw that the toads had finished talking to Mario. Link decided to approach the man to see if he's interested.

"Hey, you are Mario the Vampire Hunter?" Link asked.

"Yeah, what's it to ya." Mario sipped some beer.

"Well, my name is Link. I'm assembling a team of fighters to protect this land from the demon army. The vampires have allied themselves with the demons and we need an expert in vampire hunting to join us."

"Who or what are your members?" Mario asked.

"Well, we got a werewolf, guardian, prince, and a bounty hunter in our ranks." Link said trying to impress Mario.

"Trust me, don't cross the vampires. They are cold blooded killers." Mario drank.

"Mario, I really think we need your talents. If my team has no way of dealing with vampires, then there is no more world to save. What would your brother think?" Link pleaded.

"He would run away like a frickin' coward, but he didn't do that to me when I got captured by angry spirits. I should return the favor. You see, my brother was kidnapped by some angry primates because of something of a feud between me and their king."

"A feud?" Link questioned.

"I'd rather not get into details. If you can take me to King DK, so I can free my brother I will join your group." Mario complied.

"Alright." Link walked out of the bar with Mario to find Ness playing with some Yoshis.

"Hey Link! Did you find someone to help us?" Ness asked.

"Yeah, Mario here, he's a vampire hunter. In order for him to join us, he wants us to rescue his brother from King Donkey Kong. It seems that those two have history." Link told him.

"Yes, King DK must pay for taking my brother." Mario said.

"Alright, we should teleport to the Jungle Japes if we want to get there in a split second." Ness advised.

"Agreed. Even though the sensation of teleport made me sick before." Link said with distaste.

Mario had no clue who or what he was dealing with these two.

Ness orders Mario, "Grab Link's hand, we're going there the fastest way I know possible."

Mario grabbed Link's hand and Link's other hand held Ness's. The three started to build up speed and ran faster and faster- until they hit a tree. The failed attempt at teleportation resulted in a small explosion of energy that charred them all black.

"Do not say a word about this." Ness said.

Link asked Mario, "Hey, do you know where the clearest path is?"

Mario replied, "Yeah, alongside the beach."

The three walked down to the beach and saw the beach was a perfect spot for attempting another shot at teleportation.

"Alright, we are going to attempt another shot." Ness signaled. They all grabbed hands and this time they ran enough speed to pull off a successful teleportation. Link felt the familiar ring of teleportation. His head was ringing with that strange whistle. Instead of feeling sick, the ringing noise actually sounded quite nice. Then the ringing stopped. Link opened his eyes to find himself back in Jungle Japes. Link looked at Mario to see that he took teleportation even worse than Link's first time. Clearly alcohol and space travelling don't mix.

"Here let me see if I can heal him." Ness offered.

A faint blue light surrounded Mario and his stomach started feeling better.

"Woah, I feel much better now. Hey kid, you some kinda magic fairy or somethin'?" Mario asked.

"A fairy?! Do I look like a fairy to you? I'm almost the same height as you and your physical age is twice mine! You look like some kind of dwarf-"

"Ness! Cool down all right?" Link stopped him.

"You need to take me to King DK, I have unfinished business with him for taking my brother." Mario commanded.

"We'll get there. I remember where it was, just follow me guys." Link lead.

Link led the group towards King DK's village full of primates. The primates noticed Mario and began screeching. They ran back inside their homes and called their King to come out.

King DK came out of his tree house and saw Mario. He jumped down, roared and pounded his fists on his chest as a battle cry.

Mario yells at him, "Where did you take my brother, you dirty ape!"

"Your brother was wandering around the jungle and I captured in as revenge from that one time you trapped my father in that cage and you were going to sell him!" Donkey Kong yelled.

"Wait a sec, you were that young gorilla that stole my keys?" Mario questioned.

"Yes, and with them I freed my father. I have dreamed of getting my revenge on you and your brother in my hands is punishment."

"Donkey Kong, I did that a long time ago!" Mario yelled.

"Did you ever think about how it affected me as a young gorilla? You took my father away from me!" Donkey Kong said angrily.

Link cut in, "Donkey Kong, Mario here agreed to join us in our journey. We need someone with skills to hunt vampires. If you release his brother, we'll be closer to defeating the demon and vampire armies."

"And who do you are?" Donkey Kong questioned.

Link was in his human form talking to DK. The last few times he talked to King DK was in his wolf form.

"He's the hero chosen by the goddess. If anyone is going to lead the resistance against the demon army, it's him. You know who I am DK, I'm speaking the truth." Ness tried to appeal to DK.

"All right, I believe you guardian. Very well, I will let Mario's brother go." Donkey Kong allowed.

"Where is my brother?" Mario yelled.

"He's being held in a cell on Death Mountain." Donkey Kong revealed.

"Death Mountain?!" the three said shocked.


	9. Fire and Ice

The three stood in shock. Death Mountain is an active volcano to the south of Jungle Japes. Its terrain is craggy and steep. It's not exactly safe for humans.

"Death Mountain! You no good dirty ape, my brother will die there!" Mario yelled at Donkey Kong.

In his frustration, Mario punched Donkey Kong right in the gut. Donkey Kong got back up and used his head to smash Mario into the ground and followed it up with a powerful punch of his own. Mario fell back a few meters from the blow.

Link was frantically trying to figure out a way to get these two to break up their fight. Ness motioned to Link to suggest that he should stop this fight.

Link says softly, "How should we go about this? They are locked in fighting."

"I got an idea. Pull Mario away and talk to him, I'll calm DK." Ness suggested.

Mario was about to kick DK in retaliation, but Link grabbed Mario by his overalls. Mario kept struggling against Link's grasp by his overalls.

"Why are you keeping me away from punching him? He locked my brother up at Death Mountain!" Mario struggled.

"Look, we'll free your brother. We just need to find out where in Death Mountain he is." Link explained.

Link looked over at Donkey Kong to see that he was talking with Ness.

"So you need that guy to hunt vampires?" DK questioned.

"Well yeah, they are allied with the demons now. Link thought we should recruit him to help our cause. You understand, right DK?" Ness told.

"Link? I met a wolf named Link and gave him the stone you entrusted me with." DK said with a rather inquisitive look.

"Yeah… about that, Link's actually a werewolf."

"Since when did you make pacts with werewolves?" DK questioned.

"The chosen one happened to be a werewolf and I am entrusted to help aid him on his journey. Anyways, where in Death Mountain is Mario's brother in?"

"Hmm, I'm sure that my subjects locked him up in an underground cell at the base of the mountain. It's treacherous territory, so I am going to give you guys something that will help you get through." Donkey Kong jumped to the bottom floor of his tree house and came back up holding a pale blue flower.

"Um, what's that supposed to do?" Link asked.

Mario looked at the flower and realized something about it.

"That flower… It looks like? An ice flower! How exactly-a did you find an ice flower?" Mario asked.

"I was on the base of this haunted glacier chasing a couple of kremlings. When I finally caught up to them, they were frozen solid! It is rumored that the glacier is haunted by someone who died there. The ghost is known to freeze anyone who invades its territory." DK said.

"A ghost? They have the most miserable lives out of anyone I've encountered. They live their existence in confusion and angst. Terrible really." Ness reflected.

"I thought you looked some kind of ghost when I first met you." Link replied.

"Well, guardians and ghosts are both spirits, just different…" Ness explained.

"Enough talk about ghosts, I need to save my brother!" Mario raised his voice.

"Alright, we'll be off now." Link followed Mario out the door.

"It's been nice seeing you again DK!" Ness waved good-bye.

The three were leaving the village, but a familiar monkey stood in the way. Link recognized him as Diddy Kong.

"Hey Diddy!" Link waved.

Diddy Kong looked at Link with a strange look, not recognizing him because Link was not currently in his wolf form.

"Does he even know-a who you are?" Mario said to Link.

"Oh wait, I was in my wolf form when I met him. You see- I shift at nights. It didn't always happen to me." Link disclosed.

"That was because your guardian, the Deku Tree, died right?" Ness asked.

"Yeah, I think his powers blocked my ability to shift."

"Well, werewolves draw their power from dark energy and powerful guardians can block it out. Yours was very old anyways, I think he's been around for about five thousand years." Ness explained.

While the two were talking, Diddy Kong climbed up a tree to avoid the three.

Diddy began making a bunch of screeches as if trying to communicate. Link and Mario could not understand the monkey.

"What's he saying?" Link asked.

"He's pestering us about why we saw the king." Ness interpreted.

"This monkey needs-a no business from us, I got a brotha to save." Mario passed by.

Diddy Kong looked unpleased about Mario passing by him and shot a peanut from his peanut gun at his head thinking the three were threatening his uncle. Instead of the peanut hitting Mario, it hit Link instead. Link felt the peanut hit him and yelled, "We didn't attack your uncle!"

Diddy ran away by taking the hint that these guys didn't want him around.

"Filthy monkeys, I'm still-a angry at them for trapping my brother inside that volcano." Mario said angrily.

The three continued onto the path to the volcano. The landscape became less jungle-like and a large plain came closer in distance, as well as Death Mountain in sight. It is rather charred looking in appearance. Link also caught sight of the haunted glacier that lied east to their destination.

Link thought, "I find it so strange how two places that are nearby can vary so intensely."

The glacier appeared to look harmless, it was a bluish-white color and there were no clouds in sight around it.

As for Death Mountain, the three heroes began walking up towards it. The air became drier and the terrain was becoming craggy. Mario was treading on ahead of the other two. Mario was very adept at climbing up the volcano as if climbing were second nature to him. On the other hand, Link needed to help navigate Ness around the terrain. Link was just adequate at climbing, but he could tell that his friend kept losing his footing.

Link points out, "You're not used to climbing up volcanoes aren't you?"

"I'm just not used to timing my jumps like this, I keep slipping!" Ness shouted.

Link stared at how well Mario was making it up the mountain. He was doing flips while jumping too!

"Show-off" Link muttered. He and Ness decided to take their time up the mountain.

After climbing the terrain, Mario arrives to the base of Death Mountain. Hot puffs of steam cam blowing up through certain spots on the ground. Mario saw a tunnel on the base of the mountain.

"This must be where my brother is, hurry up guys." Mario called out.

The other two heard Mario, but they still had a quarter of the way up the trail to go. After three minutes of waiting, Link and Ness finally make it up to Death Mountain.

"I'm so winded and this heat from the volcano is making it worse." Link exasperated.

"Well, at least we made it!" Ness said.

"Bout time that you two show up. I see some kind of tunnel that leads into the mountain. The inside might be guarded by pools of lava, so that's when I'm going to bring out this." Mario brought out the icy flower.

"What's that supposed to do?" Link asked.

"I'm skilled with certain levels of alchemy. This flower is a main ingredient of the freezing spell. I will drink the potion and it will turn my body into ice and anything I will touch will freeze. It is only temporary though." Mario explained.

"So… is there enough for all of us?" Link asked.

"Fraid not." Mario took out a bottle and some strange substances and mixed them together with the icy flower.

"However, the enemy armies are onto us. That is where you two come in. I need you guys to guard the entrance, while I go find my brotha." Mario ran inside the entrance while Link and Ness stood at the entrance.

"He sure can take off without us can he?" Ness pointed out.

"Let him be. He must be really worried knowing his brother is locked up." Link replied.

On Mario's side, he is running through the cave. He travels down the pathway for about twenty-five minutes. He feels the temperature rise more and more. There is a network of tunnels that leads to different places. Mario assumed the hottest tunnel held his brother from the gesture of Donkey Kong giving him the flower.

Mario traveled down a path and ran into a tunnel full of lava. Knowing what to do, Mario took out the potion and drank it. He became "Ice Mario!"

Ice Mario skated across the ice and froze everything he touched, even the piping hot magma! Mario made it to the other side of the tunnel and found what he needed to find. He found a bunch of cells. Most of them held the more dangerous enemies of the Kongs, but he found Luigi somewhere in the middle.

"Luigi?" Mario greeted.

"Mario! You came to rescue me! I was-a gettin worried. I've been locked in here for hours by that monkey! Did you bring any food?" Luigi asked.

"We'll get some food when we get out of here." Mario said as he tried picking the lock. The lock was successfully picked letting Luigi go.

"I'm so happy to see you!" Luigi cried.

"Don't worry brotha. Let's get out of here, the magma should still be frozen. I used an Ice potion to get here." Mario guided.

As the two were heading back, the sun was almost setting. Link and Ness had waited for about forty minutes now.

Link noticed the sun and pointed it out to Ness, "Hey, the sun is setting. I wonder how Mario and his brother would react to a big dog being part of the group?"

Ness responds, "They won't mind it hopefully, it's better than getting ambushed by demons right?" Link nods in agreement.

Ten minutes pass and the sun is going down and finally reaches the point of dusk.

Link thought he heard something crawl out of the ground. He brings out his sword to defend himself. Out of the cracks appeared these lizard like things that could breathe fire.

"What are those?" Ness asked.

"Dodongos, attack their tails." Link stated.

Link did not have anything to shield himself from the dodongos' flames, so he had to sidestep to get out of the way. Link attacked the tail of one and successfully vanquished it. Unfortunately, more enemies decided to join the dodongos. Bokoblins and fiery bats came to surround both Link and Ness.

"Think you can hold them off until Mario comes?" Link asks.

"Possibly. He better hurry up!" Ness replied.

The two had to hold out on their own for when Mario and his brother come out. It just so happened to be that the monsters only came out when the sun was gone.

Mario and Luigi were almost there to the surface. Luigi looked rather dehydrated due to the heat of the volcano and being left with barely anything to drink. He was lagging a bit behind Mario.

Mario encouraged, "Luigi, don't give up. Just imagine some nice plate of spaghetti waiting for you back home!"

Luigi's mouth watered at the comment. Some nice spaghetti would be excellent, after all it would be deserving right?

The two brothers made it to the surface in about seven minutes only to find a kid and a dog fighting some monsters. The sun was long gone, so Link was forcibly shifted into his wolf form.

"Hey kid, where's-a Link?" Mario asked Ness.

"Link's the wolf! Do you think you can clear the way for us to leave?" Ness shouted.

Mario kept punching enemies around him and Luigi did a spin attack on another. The four raced off of the mountain.

"Do you think you can do that teleport thingy?" Mario asked.

"This trail seems to have enough space. Everyone grab each other's hand!" Ness ordered.

Wolf Link looked confused as he was Quadra pedal now. Link looked at Mario's overalls and had an idea.

As Ness started running, Luigi grabbed his hand, and Mario grabbed Luigi's, then Link bit the back of Mario's overalls to have a firm grip. The result was a successful teleportation, but Link kept dangling in the back and Mario felt the extra weight.

When the teleportation was over, Luigi felt dizzy but nonetheless better than Link and Mario. Link's jaw was sore, but he was alright. Mario had the worst case like last time. His head was spinning and gagged from the sudden movement.

"Looks like someone isn't over teleport sickness." Ness commented about Mario.

"Hey shuddup, I had a dog on my overalls." Mario glared his eyes at Link.

"Well, we are here at Yoshi's Island! Now where's that plate of spaghetti you promised Mario!" Luigi said hungrily.

* * *

Sorry, haven't updated in a while due to school. I still had class this week even though Thanksgiving is tomorrow -.-

I appreciate to those who have critiqued my story. I was not surprised that my action scenes needed to be done better. If someone can recommend me a source that can help me write certain scenes that would be great! Excerpts from well-known books would be the best source.


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